IBHJ Chapter 833

Seeing her flustered face, Shirou stopped teasing and threw on some white pajamas before sitting on the bed. With Shirou now dressed, Artoria finally let out a sigh of relief. Even though they'd been intimate before, facing Shirou in this situation still made her feel shy.

"My king, did you have that nightmare again?" she asked with concern.

Shirou hadn't kept the strange dreams a secret from her, so Artoria knew he'd been having them.

Hearing her question, he nodded. "Yeah."

"Should we ask Merlin to enter your dream and take a look?" she suggested with worry on her face.

At the mention of Merlin, Shirou rolled his eyes. "That guy ran off to who knows where. Even I can't summon him here."

He wasn't kidding. Ever since Shirou came to Chaldea, Merlin had disappeared without a trace, and not even Eternal King's Noble Phantasm could bring him back.

"That's true..." she nodded and sighed. "Merlin can be really unreliable sometimes."

"Let's not dwell on the dream. Artie, did you need something from me?" Shirou asked.

She nodded and said, "Yes. Actually, Waver has returned, and they asked me to come get you."

"Oh, so Waver's back?"

Shirou raised his eyebrows. After returning from the Connection Point, he had provided all the information he'd gained from Surtr to Chaldea. To investigate the Council's purpose and gather more information on the Primordial Age, Waver had specifically set off for the Atlas Academy in Egypt. Using his identity as a Lord, he had access to Atlas Academy's Pseudo-Spiritron Calculation Engine Tri-Hermes, to know more about Primordial Age.

Two months had passed since Shirou joined Chaldea, and the reason he hadn't gone on any missions was that he was waiting for news from Waver. Now, it seemed Waver had finally returned from Atlas with some information.

"I got it. But why did they specifically ask you to come call me?" Shirou asked curiously.

"I'm not sure either, but it had something to do with Gray."

Hearing this, he was at a loss for words. "I think I have a pretty good idea of what she's trying to do. This kid has grown up a lot since thirteen years ago..."

"Hm?" she tilted her head, looking at him with confusion in her eyes.

Shirou led her to the control room in Area A, where Waver, Romani, and Gray were already chatting and laughing over tea. As soon as he arrived, Romani's smile vanished, replaced by a look of resentment. "Well, well, well! If it isn't our legendary grand swindler, Mr. Eternal King himself!"

Shirou: "..."

He looked at the resentful Romani with a speechless expression. "It's been a month, and you're still holding a grudge over that?"

"What kind of stupid question is that? The men's restroom used to be my personal Eden here in Chaldea, but you—, you just had to go and destroy my paradise! Damn it! Now whenever I try to hide, Sheba comes running to the restroom to find me. There's nowhere left for me in Chaldea anymore! Do you have any idea how much pain and suffering you've caused me?" Romani glared at him with wide eyes, his voice tearful.

Shirou said expressionlessly, "Sorry, but that kind of suffering is too high-class for me to relate to."

Hearing this, Romani glanced at him and muttered, "Three days and three nights."

Shirou: "..."

"Eep!" Artoria trembled all over, blushing with shame as she glared at Romani. She was considering whether she should find an opportunity to make him lose his memory.

Shirou sighed, "Forget it. I'm not going to stoop to your level." He then turned his head slightly to face Waver. "How did the intel gathering go, Waver? Did you run into any problems at Atlas?"

"There is indeed a problem," Waver nodded, then took out a stack of A4 paper printouts from his briefcase and said with a solemn expression, "I've already provided a copy of the information to the Director and the others. Here's another copy for you. Take a look."

Shirou picked it up and glanced at it, his eyes suddenly narrowing. "This is...!"

On the first page of the stack of A4 paper printouts was a scan of two trilobite fossils. What was shocking was that one of the trilobite fossils had a partial human footprint, while the other piece showed an almost complete footprint shape.

"As you can see, this is a photo of a trilobite fossil, but there's a human footprint on it, which is very bizarre," Waver said.

"This is indeed quite shocking. According to common sense, trilobites went extinct at the end of the Permian period, 252 million years ago. During that time, there shouldn't have been humans or human-like animals on the planet," Shirou frowned.

"Exactly. That period was even older than the Age of Gods. Even dinosaurs hadn't appeared yet," Waver added, his frown deepening. "But unfortunately, the evidence is right here in front of us."

Shirou paused for a moment, then asked, "Could it be a forgery?"

Waver shook his head. "Atlas Academy's Pseudo-Spiritron Calculation Engine Tri-Hermes cannot possibly record false information. Moreover, this set of photos exists even in the national database of America. These photos were taken in 1968. In June of that year, amateur fossil enthusiast Mr. Meister discovered them in Utah. In addition, in July 1968, geologist Dr. Burdick went there for an expedition and discovered a child's footprint. In August 1968, Salt Lake City public school teacher Watt found two human footprints wearing shoes in the same rock containing trilobite fossils. All of this is recorded in America's national database in terrifying detail."

Romani also frowned. "Trilobites are small marine invertebrates, in the same category as shrimp and crabs. They existed on Earth from 600 million years ago until their extinction 280 million years ago. In comparison, the history of human appearance is extremely short, and wearing shoes only began just over 3,000 years ago, starting from my era. None of this can be explained."

"Not only that, but if you look further back, there are even more shocking things!" Waver said.

Shirou nodded, scanning a few more pages of information. His eyes suddenly narrowed, "Wait, is this..."

"Exactly, a nuclear reactor!" Waver confirmed solemnly.

"During World War II, when the French Hachette Company was using uranium ore imported from Oklo, Gabon, for production, they realized that someone had already used the ore. The uranium isotopic abundance should have been 0.72%, but it had less than 0.3%. Hachette sent some specialists to investigate the mine in Gabon, and they found an ancient nuclear reactor made up of about 500 tons of uranium ore in 6 different areas. The reactor had an output of around 100 kilowatts and had been running for over a million years! The crazy thing is, the Oklo uranium ore formed 2 billion years ago, while humans only mastered nuclear technology and built the first reactor in the 1940s. That means 2 billion years ago, there was a civilization on Earth that had already mastered nuclear technology!"

Everyone's hearts grew heavy at these words.

Suddenly, Gray said, "Wait, I've read that report... Wasn't it explained as a naturally formed nuclear reactor?"

"That's the official story," Waver said, turning to her. "But Tri-Hermes records show that it was actually an artificially created nuclear reactor. The government put out that statement to keep people from panicking, just like with China's Changbai Mountain."

Waver paused for a moment before continuing, "Speaking of China, there have also been some major discoveries in Asian regions."

Hearing this, Shirou frowned as he flipped through a few reports. He stopped when he came across a sheet with a strange-looking bronze mask. "Sanxingdui..." he muttered, his brow furrowed.

Waver looked at him, somewhat surprised. "You know about Sanxingdui?"

Shirou nodded. "Yes, I do. Is there a problem?"